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Value-Based Fees, subtitled “How to Charge – And Get – What You’re Worth, A Guide for Serious Consultants” is a veritable treasure map that leads to other treasure maps.

It’s actually difficult to overstate how much great information is contained between the covers of Alan Weiss’ book.

Value Based Fees was first published in 2002, and it quickly became the top book for consultants who needed to figure out how much they should charge their clients for their services.

Weiss has revised this book in this new edition, and he shows how consulting fees are really based on only two things: The value provided in the perception

of the buyer, and the intent of the buyer and the consultant to act ethically. While this sounds like a small distinction, it carries the weight of a $1M idea. The problem, Weiss postulates, is that most consultants just don’t understand that the perception of value is the basis of the fee, or that it is necessary for the consultant to articulate the importance of their advice into long-term gains for the client (Again, in the client’s perception).

Another problem that Weiss identifies is the fact that consultants often simply don’t have the courage nor the actual belief that support the high value they

deliver to clients, and as a result they end up reducing their fees to a level that reflects the consultant’s own low self-esteem.

In the end, according to Weiss, consultants are the reason for their own low incomes.

This book aims to change that phenomenon.

The book is filled with stories of successful consultants, and demonstrates in concrete ways how you can educate your clients about the value you’re

rendering, and, more importantly, how you can command high fees that are commensurate with the value you render.

The book is filled with step by step guidance, and proven systems for establishing the value of your services and getting clients to pay for that value. This is a hands on book with hands on advice including:

Current information on ethical issues.

Guidance on making consulting scalable.

Key formulas for today’s marketplace.

New chapters on building wealth and the implication of technology fees.

This book clearly explains how to charge exactly what you’re worth and get that price, giving you not theories, but practical advice that will help improve your practice and your income immediately.

Don’t be deceived by the book’s title or subject matter. The ideas set forth in this book are not for consultants only, but for anyone who needs to establish and get a higher value for the services or products that they render to their customers and clients.

If you are in any kind of business at all, and even if you are an employee, the ideas, tools, and tactics in this book can revolutionize your life and multiply your income. Let those with eyes and ears see and hear. Highly recommended.

I think the book’s main virtue (aside from being well-reasoned and well-written) is demonstrating the work we do as business owners and entrepreneurs is important. Not only in an economic sense, but in other ways as well.

In the book, Shel does a great job of marrying the ethics and pragmatics of business, and showing us that the two are inextricably linked. These ethical, spiritual viewpoints are important as determiners of the paradigm from which we operate as business people.

(As an aside: the section on copywriting is brilliant, a great distillation of timeless truth, presented in a fresh new way. I’ll be discussing these ideas in an upcoming issue of my soon-to-be-launched print newsletter for copywriters.)

Historically, there have been two disparate camps in the Western world. One one hand: the “Ayn Rand style” of entrepreneur, out primarily to make money. On the other hand: the spiritual-socially-conscious people, who have tended to paint “big business” primarily as robber-barons.

There is a third way, and it is masterfully articulated in this book.

And while I don’t agree with everything in the book, I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Well, Carrie says her book if for anyone who longs to run their business from home. She says it’s possible (and she doesn’t just say it though, she shows you how). Her book helps anyone understand the ingredients needed to start and run a lucrative home-based business.

In this interview you’ll find Carrie to be an engaging, likeable, down-to-earth teacher with deep integrity — and you’ll also hear a powerful woman who knows what she’s talking about!

What They Say About Ray

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New York Times Best-Selling Author br>
Twitter Power, Ka-Ching, and The Adsense Code

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Creator of Product Launch Formula

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Internet Entrepreneur

“I do not lightly give recommendations or endorsements… my stellar reputation is on the line. But in the case of Ray Edwards, I can and will give him my highest recommendation, and say that if you’re a business owner looking for ways to increase your customer count, your profits, or your business efficiency, get in touch with Ray… he’s that good!”

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Topline Business Consultants

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Best-Selling Author of Impact!

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ray Edwards on many projects, and I recommend him at every opportunity. ”

“Ray is one of the rare writers that knows both sides of the business and it shows in his results. If you are lucky enough to work with him you will see what I mean. Great stuff.”

Brian Johnson br>
Lifebook

About Ray Edwards

My name is Ray Edwards (in case you hadn't guessed that yet). I'm a copywriter and communications strategist, and I've had the privilege of writing for or working with some of the most powerful voices in leadership and business including New York Times bestselling authors Michael Hyatt, Jeff Walker, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul) and Tony Robbins. I'm also a speaker and author, and host a popular weekly iTunes Business podcast.